She Thought His Eyes Were Brown

Rebekka Turkanik

by Rebekka Turkanik

Story

She realized the color of his eyes had changed.

The first time she had seen him, he had been on a stage – animated, teaching. And she had fancied his eyes a deep brown. Commonplace in most of the world, but growing up in a town proudly up-keeping the pure Scandinavian bloodlines, anything darker was always a point of fascination for her. A hint towards something good. So, she noticed his eyes when he got up to speak. The rest of his appearance did make him stand out too; slender build, dark hair in a wave off to one side, stubble. She wasn’t supposed to, but she started comparing him to her boyfriend. The similarities were definitely there. Except this guy was on stage. A calm and relaxed authority in his speaking style. It was easy to pay attention for the whole speech.

Afterwards, at coffee, they were introduced, and it was enough to let her fall through the floor of the castle she had been building in the clouds. He wasn’t how she had imagined him. Now off the stage, he seemed somewhat shy. Up close, she realized; his eyes were actually green.

But now the color of his eyes was changing again.

It was a few weeks later, at a pizzeria with a group of friends. She didn’t know he was invited, but he arrived, and sat by her. They didn’t talk much to begin with, but a chance comment about veganism started a conversation that soon excluded everyone but them two. It continued through blood donation, cloning, foster children, and comparison of childhoods for such a time that at one point she looked away to realize she could not remember the last silence. There hadn’t been one. The symbiosis of conversation flowed effortlessly. It was a refreshingly different type of conversation, one of equals sharing knowledge and discussing refreshingly educated opinions. It turned out that he was studying medicine. Only now did she realize how much of her interactions with the opposite sex tended to be games of fish and bait, of impressions and flirting. Interactions, where the only point of interest was that the guy was interested in her. How tiring, how superficial!

But there was nothing of that in this conversation, it was purely interesting. It was actual friendship. And she noticed, when she looked back, that his eyes weren’t totally green after all. Around the pupil, there was a star of brown.


© Rebekka Turkanik 2023-10-20

Genres
Novels & Stories
Moods
Reflective